Embodiments of inventive concepts disclosed herein relate generally to the field of communication systems. More particularly, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein relate to systems and methods that tune communication equipment or select communication channels.
Aircraft pilots rely on communications systems, such as, radio units, to report and request information, to receive instructions, to obtain navigation and weather information and to receive traffic information from the ground (e.g., air traffic control and beacons) and other aircraft. Pilots and co-pilots spend a significant amount of time tuning radios to appropriate channels or frequencies during preflight, flight and post flight activities. Setting radio frequencies for the radios is one of the most repeated tasks performed by the flight crew while flying. Pilots often follow the following procedure when changing radio frequencies:                1) Identify that a radio frequency change is required either by pilot initialization (e.g., need to taxi) or by air traffic control (ATC) (e.g., direction is given by the controller).        2) Find the frequency (e.g., when self-initiated, by opening a chart and finding the frequency of interest or when initiated by ATC, by hearing a frequency from a controller).        3) Open the radio tuning application.        4) Select the radio to tune.        5) Enter frequency into the standby field (XXX.XXX).        6) Swap frequencies.        
Legacy radios generally use a tuning control panel that includes physical knobs, buttons or other selectors that give tactile feedback as the pilot or co-pilot makes frequency selections. The trend within avionics design is to use graphical user interfaces, such as user interfaces emulated keypads rather than physical knobs and buttons. Emulated keypads are considered less usable and can require increased selection time when compared to physical knobs or buttons due to lack of tactical feedback and precise finger positioning.